Can a joystick be nothing but a mouse?

rather simple question: can i use a logitech joystick (force 3D for example) as nothing but a mouse emulator?i'd like to use one in World of Warcraft, but they don't support joysticks. I have hand injuries and cannot use a mouse, but i can use a joystick. All i need to do is map 2 of the buttons to the left and right click, and of course the movement of the mouse itself to the joystick handle movement. the genius sales guy at compusa did not know the answer to this question.

Re: Can a joystick be nothing but a mouse?

Sinusoid,yes, i agree, it seems that it would be rather trivial for the logitech software to have a setup function that allowed you to map such functions. Hey Mona, could you have the guys send me the driver code and i'll do the changes? ;-)

I took apart a mouse and a logitech joystick. The problem is that mice output quadrature pulse waveforms, and joysticks output just straight DC 0-5 volts. The Logitech ASIC does have quad on some pins, but they don't make sense. So you can't even rewire the joystick to the mouse connector.

I have a solution, i'm going to run the joystick pots into the ADC on a PIC microcontroller and map the voltage to a quadrature Dig. output that i will wire into the mouse, then plug the mouse in. Sounds insane? you bet it is, but it will work. I don't think any of the joystick makers do mouse emuluation, so it is certainly nothing wrong with Logitech by any means.

I bet i could sell 10,000 joystick-mice in a week. Imagine being able to target an enemy in world of warcraft like a pilot instead of rolling a silly mouse around.

Re: Can a joystick be nothing but a mouse?

The codes are unfortunately proprietary information and even we are not privy to them. You can however, sign up at our Game Developers Website. This program is intended to help PC and console video game developers take advantage of Logitech's support offerings in the areas of software development, hardware seeding and marketing co-promotion.

As a registered developer, you will receive access to these support programs as well as an assortment of downloadable resources including software development kits, wrapper classes, sample code, development guidelines and test checklists.

Re: Can a joystick be nothing but a mouse?

The Profiler in Logitech Gaming Software allows you to emulate a mouse but, only on gamepads. This option is not available for standard joysticks and wheels. So with a Logitech gamepad you can assign mouse axes to mini joysticks and mouse buttons to the buttons on the gamepad.